Berlin, Germany · hard-techno · techno

Kobosil

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Berlin hard techno at its most severe — a Berghain regular whose records are all pressure and no release.

Kobosil was born Max Kobosil in Berlin's Neukölln district on 5 April 1991. As a child he mostly listened to German hip-hop until his sister introduced him to EDM at 14; hearing "Jack Your Body" by P. Diddy and Felix da Housecat convinced him that techno was what he wanted to make. He began experimenting with two friends who later performed as Somewhen and Nitam.

At 17 he started playing techno and house around Berlin, and at 18 he visited Berghain for the first time, where he met producer Andreas Baumecker. A remix Kobosil made of Baumecker's track "Silo," released on Ostgut Ton in January 2013, marked his breakthrough. That June he founded his own label, RK, putting out his debut EP, RK3, and soon after played Berghain as a DJ.

His productions favour distorted kick drums, metallic textures and sustained tension over melodic resolution, and his DJ sets tend toward high tempos and sustained intensity. He has been closely associated with Berghain and the Ostgut Ton orbit.

His next EP, "Mdr 10," appeared on Marcel Dettmann's label, Marcel Dettmann Records. From December 2014 to 2019 he was a resident DJ at Berghain, and by 2015 was working full-time as a musician across clubs and festivals internationally. His debut album, "We Grow, You Decline," followed in 2016; his own label later expanded to release other producers' work under the name R Label Group.

In 2021 Kobosil launched a fashion line, 44 Label Group, named for Neukölln's old postal code, backed by Italian designer Claudio Antonioli; that year he also released the track "Kobosil" with Berlin rapper Ufo361, following it with "Lucifer" in 2022. In 2023 he founded a new label and agency, Tote Sonne, with DJ Klangkuenstler, and dissolved R Label Group; he now lives in Milan.

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